(Forimmediaterelease.net) In August 2016, almost six million passengers passed through Frankfurt Airport (FRA), representing a 5.0 percent decline compared to the strong August month of 2015. As in previous months, the ongoing geopolitical situation continued to have a negative impact on passenger volumes. Restrained bookings by holidaymakers again resulted in a decline in passenger traffic particularly to tourist destinations in Egypt, Tunisia, and Turkey. That decline could not be offset by the strong growth in tourist traffic to the Balearic and Canary Islands, rising by almost 10 percent and even about 30 percent respectively. Intercontinental traffic at FRA also slowed reflecting concerns of holidaymakers - particularly from the Far East - regarding the overall security situation in Europe.

Correspondingly, the number of aircraft movements at FRA declined by 2.3 percent to 41,803 takeoffs and landings. Accumulated maximum takeoff weights (MTOWs) shrank by 1.8 percent to some 2.7 million metric tons, whereas the average MTOW per landing rose to 127.9 metric tons - thus marking a new August record. Cargo throughput (airfreight + airmail) remained almost stable at 171,871 metric tons in the reporting month (down 0.1 percent).

Fraport AG's international portfolio of airports continued to report mixed results in August 2016. Ljubljana Airport (LJU) in Slovenia welcomed 165,137 passengers in the reporting month, a decline of 8.1 percent on the previous year. In contrast, Lima Airport (LIM) in Peru's capital registered traffic growth of 9.6 percent to almost 1.8 million passengers. The Twin Star airports of Varna (VAR) and Burgas (BOJ) on the Bulgarian Black Sea coast together received some 1.3 million passengers, an increase of 17.2 percent year-on-year. Antalya Airport (AYT) in Turkey and St. Petersburg Pulkovo Airport (LED) in Russia saw passenger traffic drop noticeably to approximately 2.8 million passengers (down 38.8 percent) and about 1.6 million passengers (down 8.0 percent), respectively. In Germany, Hanover Airport (HAJ) reported a 6.9 percent decline in traffic to 549,088 passengers. Xi'an Airport (XIY) in central China, by contrast, posted a double-digit gain in traffic, rising by 10.9 percent to just under 3.5 million passengers. XIY thus continued its growth trend of recent months.